I'll try to come back later, but I don't see it happening. Happy Valentine's Day, darlings.

*****

Okay, so now Johnston's suggesting to us Brian K. Vaughan might be writing a Tao series for the WildStorm relaunch?

Seriously, I think they're gonna be hitting a home run with this one. I'm excited about pretty much every single creative team that's been mentioned.

*****

Ooh, Miriam's got jobnik! #4 on its way! And there's a pretty sweet preview on her website, too. Hey, Miriam: nice work on the coloring for the cover:

Best one yet, I think.

*****

All right, let's bang out these "Premium Publishers" or whatever they're supposed to be called:

Dark Horse hits me with two more Conan books, both written by Kurt Busiek and so both on my pull list. Conan #27 features Tim Truman artwork and a Tony Harris cover, and Conan: Book of Thoth #2 hits us with Kelley Jones artwork (and story collaboration with Len Wein) so it's quality all around.

Oh, sweetness and joy! The Goon #17 comes in April. This is one of my five favorite books on the market right now, easy. Can't get enough. Got to meet Eric Powell this weekend, too, which was righteous; he's a super chill guy, and he hooked up my Goon trade with a bitchin' sketch on the inside cover.

Image kicks things off with Frank Cho's Women: Selected Drawings and Illustrations, which is gonna be a hell of a volume - nobody draws the ladies with more verve and affection than Cho, so much so that it goes all the way through sexy (picking up plenty of that on the way) and back to respectable. $25 is a little much for me, but it's a reasonable price for the product and I'll be picking it up when I have a little extra scratch.

The preview pages for Astro only make me more interested in this 40-page OGN; the painting style here is really pleasant to look at, with color tones that remind me of some of Eric Powell's recent painted-looking pages and some of Frank Quitely's stuff.

Nobles Causes #19 comes down the pike, a series I'm always excited to see in my pull box. Looks like Faerber is putting the Johnny Storm-esque character, Race, through a ringer here and really distinguishing him from his most obvious inspiration, which should be cool. Also features art from "new series artist" Jon Bosco, so I'm gonna have to do some looking around for that guy's stuff to see what I can expect.

The Tourist, the lost OGN from Brian Wood and Toby Cypress, is on its way at last, and I'll be checking it out for that cover alone.

Freak Show, the OGN from Bruce Jones and Bernie Wrightson, is getting a softcover treatment, and at $5.99 (what, half the price of the hardcover?) it's finally in my price range. Jones does good horror, so I'll be happy to check this one out.

Fell is on the pull list, and I'm looking forward to issue #7.

Still looking forward to what Queen & Country artist Mike Hawthorne will bring in Hysteria: One Man Gang, issue #2 of which is on its way.

Invincible #33 is a must (man, #30 was aweomse last week!) and I'm also happy to see that Walking Dead #30 is on its way (was missing from the online solicits, I think). We're also finally getting Kirkman's long-running Superpatriot: War on Terror #4, finally finishing the series (what, two years later? Lazy, lazy Kirkman!).

Still curious to see what writer/artist Peter Bergting has in store for us with The Portent; the artwork I've seen so far has all been gorgeous, and I'm looking forward to it. Issue #2 is solicited here.

I was tripped out by how young he is, actually; he's got one of those beards where it's a full, regular ear-to-chin thing but comes to a point, wears a baseball cap, glasses... he doesn't look even 30, I dunno, I didn't expect that.

I got The Goon himself; if it'd been a pencil-and-paper style sketch, I'd be all over Buzzard (or maybe Frankie, my favorite character) but it was silver sharpie on the black inside cover, so we kept it more simple and iconic.